


The Red Angels, a Nonprofit Organisation

by Magical-Robins (DeletedBecauseShy)



Series: The Red Angels [5]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Gangsters, Alternate Universe - Mob, Angst, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Psychological Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-15 00:35:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29550795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeletedBecauseShy/pseuds/Magical-Robins
Summary: —Everything had been going well, almost too well. There were hiccups sure, but that was normal for their line of work. Truly, the only thing that seems off was Jason.Ever since Bruce and him got into the fight a few months back he’d been... off, distant. Like there was always something else on his mind. They just wondered what it was.When he finally cracked, Kate and Will could only hope to go back to whatever semblance of normal they had before. After he snaps, things get really crazy really quickly for everyone involved.—
Relationships: Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne
Series: The Red Angels [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2097645
Comments: 11
Kudos: 14





	1. Chapter 1

—  
Everything had been fairly normal for the last six months, relatively at least. It had been off to a tough start but everything had finally settled down in Jason’s life after a few months. 

The first few weeks had been spent mostly only rebuilding and furnishing the apartment. Coincidentally, it was also where most of their money went, and, as much as he tried to ignore its existence, they may have also used the stack of cash someone had left on the floor a few days later while they were all at work. 

After those first few weeks, though, everything was almost normal. There were still hundreds of people working under him, Kate, and Will; the gang hadn’t collapsed or broken off; they even had a growing list of assassinations and requests (Kate preferred the term ‘commissions’) to take. 

His wounds had been healing nicely. It had taken a week to get the stitches out, and after the one month mark, he could finally stop wrapping and treating the cut itself. By six months, all that was left was a scare, just another one for his collection. 

Bruce’s words still rung in his head like ever-present church bells. For some reason, Bruce still followed him like a shadow, even after everything that had happened between them. 

He refused to let it get to him in the beginning, hyper-focusing on cleaning instead. If he ignored it, it would go away. It had too, there was no way he could confront years worth of rejection-sensitive trauma healthily, not yet.   
—  
Cleaning and rebuilding had been hell for Kate. To go from a relatively normal life as a mob boss, to worrying about whether or not someone was watching you sleep in your own room, only to be expected to return to normal was a stupidly difficult task. To make it easier, she started small. 

On days one and two, she got rid of all the trash and glass shards in her room, letting herself walk around barefooted afterwards. When the three new mattresses came in, she had space already cleared out. Then, she broke out her old sewing kit and started on the smaller repairs. 

Will, Jason, and her had split up the work in order to be able to specialise. She was in charge of clothing repairs and other sewing jobs. From tears in the cushions to ripped shirts and torn stuffed animals, she handled it all. 

Her favourite part had been fixing the various stuffed animals that had ended up in her room. They were mainly hers but she noticed a few familiar faces from Will’s room. There was also a raggedy, white dog that she couldn’t remember seeing anywhere around the house. Either way, with a bag of stuffing and a bit of determination, her makeshift hospital ensured at all of the patients left with small ‘battle scars’ and fake bandages. 

—  
Wills job was a lot less soft and a lot more sharp corners and emergency runs to the first aid box when he cut his finger yet again. Computer repair and everything about hardware, it turns out, was not nearly as fun as messing with software. 

No, hardware was pointy and confusing and very, very fragile. Still, better him than Kate (thinking of her even coming near his PC was a little scary). So, he got to work, even if it was boring as all hell.

Even as boring as it was, it did come with the benefit of being incredibly, achingly slow. Replacement wires and other new pieces were stacked around him like a protective wall, separating him from the rest of the house. 

The only rewarding part was when he got to move onto the software part, rebooting and reconnecting the components remotely on the screen. That, he was fairly good at. 

Oh, who’s he kidding, he pretty fucking great at it. 

He had been a quick learner when the other two first plucked him off the streets, taking to computer science and the related fields as soon as he could. Once he got started, it had all been down (up?) hill for him. Even thinking about it made his library card scream from inside his wallet. 

—  
Jason’s job was just boring. It was boring, loud, and ‘filled with a lot of screwing and pounding’ as Kate had said. She wasn’t allowed to comment on anything any more and had been banned from speaking for five minutes. He had considered making her put a dollar in the swear jar; it had been looking a little empty lately, he was worried they wouldn’t be able to use it for rent at the end of the month. But counting all of their dirty jokes might actually affect their income. 

Anyways, Jason had been tasked with repairing all of the furniture that could be salvaged. But, it did seem to be paying off, just slowly. 

By the end of day one, there was a coffee table, one chair, and half of a shelf hanging in the wall. Day two brought with it the other two chairs, Kate’s bedframe, and the other half of the shelf. From there, it was a pretty constant increase of total places to sit and eat and sleep. 

His work was nothing special, a new screw there, an extra plank there, but it got the job done. After a while, it almost looked like a place people could safely live. If houses were filled with residual glass shards, wood chips, fabric strips, and torn paper, then, yes, they lived in a house. 

His work was nothing special because he was never truly focused on it. The motions were just repetitive forces that he had to do, there was no thought put into it. Maybe there would be if his mind wasn’t already preoccupied. 

Every minute of every hour, the fight replayed in his head. Everything about it filled his waking hours. The damage, the pain, the words. He knows he lied. Did Bruce? He hoped so. 

God, he hoped so. He prayed and prayed because if Bruce had been telling the truth, it made it all so much worse. If the man was truly ready to forgive him, then what was the point of nearly killing him? If he could still be redeemed, what did that say about his cause? 

He was committed enough, and their acts were as bad as they got. They killed people, fought other gangs, even torture wasn’t to low for some of them. There was blood on his hands, so, so much blood. 

You can come back with me. We can fix things, together. 

No, no, no, no, no. 

There was no fixing something that messed up. Jason wasn’t that good at repairing broken things. He was struggling enough with old furniture. 

For the first time, he forced himself to focus on the task before him. When a bad thought bubbled to the surface, he pushed it back down in favour of the empty, weightless nothingness. 

—  
When the cleaning was done, none of them knew what to do with themselves. Found from constant work to nothing was difficult, to say the least. With nothing to do, they went back to work. No better time to return than after a three-week-long semi-absence. 

The gang had been a comforting constant, something they could work on instead when cleaning got to be too much. Actually going in person wasn’t much worse. After almost a month, their schedule was back to normal. It lasted that way for just over fine months. 

—  
It had been a normal patrol. Kate as Knight, Will as Genesis, and Jason as the Red Hood, nothing new there. It wasn’t even the route or fights that had caused it, either. Those had been average as well. Everything had been completely average!

Jason knew that was a lie. Normal didn’t include a creeping feeling of selfishness and guilt every hour of every day. It had built within him like a dam, and even dams failed under enough stress. The nail in his not-so-metaphorical coffin hadn’t come until a bit later in the night, just as they were heading back home. 

—  
When Jason first stopped dead in his tracks, Will assumed the worst. It was poison, he thought, a hidden wound! Maybe even mind control. He was wrong; but, it didn’t hurt to be cautious.

As it turned out, the only bad thing around was down on the pavement below them. From the roof of a building, it was hard to make out exactly what was going on. But, Will got the gist. 

—  
Looking down on the family felt almost intrusive to Kate. It was a side you weren’t supposed to see people from. Before, she thought the idea of looking down on people like ants had been some sort of idiom. Now, she really understood how rich people could make everything feel just so impersonal. From up high, it was almost too easy. 

But, she didn’t let it get to her, not that quickly. Instead, she focused on what Jason must be thinking. How it must feel to it from a different perspective. 

—  
There was nothing Jason could do but watch. He had to watch as the woman walked away from the small child beside her until they couldn’t see each other. From there, he could smell the drugs from memory alone. It hurt. It hurt so fucking badly. 

To watch another family be forced into such a bad situation with no way to stop it. Without even seeing the kid, he knew how the boy must feel. It wasn’t some psychic connection, just old memories. 

There’s the blissful ignorance at first, when you pretend it’s not actually happening and everything is fine. Then, you start taking responsibility, doing anything you can to keep yourself fed and clothed. After that, it’s just a hollow feeling while you wait for nature to run her course. 

You just know what will happen. It is destined to end in death and detainment. You might get lucky, get a low sentence, maybe even juvie if it’s soon enough. But for her, there’s only one thing you can do without enough money. 

When you’re poor, everything is a death sentence. Drinking, drugs, smoking, even something as small as betting on cards will only ever end badly. No matter what, your situation won’t change, not unless someone else decides to help. 

If you get dealt a bad hand at birth, it’s less of a roll of the dice and more of a coin toss. Only people who get it to land on the side will get truly lucky. For everyone else, its a downhill ride from day one onwards. 

The only reason he wasn’t rotting in some alleyway boiled down to some rich man’s pity. The only way out is other people. It’s too bad only selfish people will ever have enough resources to actually make any sort of change. 

He refuses to think Bruce had been right. The only thing that mattered was that he had finally realised what he could do. What it was that might, might, stop the sinking feeling in his chest. 

The Red Angels had been cleaning up Gotham, sure. The important thing was how they had been going about it, wrong. 

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Why didn’t he ever do anything right?

Instead of knocking down the bad guys only for more to take their places (a certain person came to mind), they should focus on helping the good, the innocent. How much more change would there be if regular people had access to the necessities they deserved? What if there was someone who was rich and powerful enough to supply that? 

The people wouldn’t need to think too hard about where the money and power were coming from, just that someone was there to help them. 

Help, that’s all he wanted to be.

—  
When Jason finally looked back up at Kate and Will, the family had long since moved on. For the last few minutes, he had been staring at an empty sidewalk. Which Kate realised was about as crazy as what he said next. “We gotta get back to the main base right now.” That wasn’t that bad. A little strange considering how rare it was to see Jason work after-hours, not too weird though. “I’m gonna fire all the assassins. Oh, and the hitmen. Actually, just all the fighters.” 

She let out an indignant squawk before adding how her own opinions into the mix. “That’s great Jason!” She smiled. “But, I do work there and that is my job. It’s my whole thing, Wills plans the violent stuff and then I follow through with it. You can’t just take away my thing!” Her speech is joined by awkwardly contained hand gestures and a few dramatic twirls for added effect. 

“Yeah, I know, Kate.” He pats her on the shoulder in an uncharacteristically kind way. “But it’s for a good reason. I just need you to listen; sit down if you have to.” 

—  
Will feels a little stupid once he notices that he’s the only one on the roof. With his legs always folded under him, though, it’s a little hard to take it back. Just to double down on his mistake, he puts his hands in his lap the same way the teacher would tell kids to do back in elementary school. 

Did they do that in high schools too? He wasn’t quite sure. He didn’t know much about high school. He didn’t know much about any grade higher than fifth, really, can’t know what you never learned after all. Either way, he didn’t make any attempt to stand back up. 

“I’m not saying we go clean or anything, that would just be crazy.” Yeah, cause this whole conversation wasn’t crazy already. “All I’m thinking is that we have the illegal stuff like, go underground. We keep them but we would need to dial it down a notch. Just enough to free up some of the overall funds for a new project.” Both of the kids looked at him sceptically. Kate was about to respond before she held her hand up in a stop motion, dropping down to sit on the roof beside Will. 

“Okay, yeah, sure. Let’s say you only keep a handful of my people. What do I do about the rest? These people can’t afford to be dropped on the street.” She used her new vantage point to pull at Jason’s legs until he sat eye-to-eye with Will and her. “What do you need the extra money for, anyways? This whole change of heart seems too sudden for it to be some impulse you had.” That was a good point. Will decided to revisit his previous alien-poison-manipulation theory from earlier. 

—  
While she is right, the idea itself is not a new one for Jason. Ever since his first run-in with Bruce, the man’s words have been haunting him. Because, no matter how hard he tried, he would never really separate himself from the man. 

Impulsive, reckless. He wasn’t being irrational. Right? He had his reasons, he had always had his reasons. 

Reckless, reckless, reckless. That had gotten him killed before. 

No, he had a good reason. He just wanted to help. All he’s ever wanted was to help. Sometimes helping is a dirty business. 

It had only taken a few things to finally push him over the edge. Seeing how much better Pop’s clinic looked after he got an ‘anonymous’ supplier, being forced to build most of his house from the ground up, and seeing the little boy and his mom. 

Maybe...

Maybe Gotham needed a different type of help. “The money, I need it for something else. I think we’ve been going about this all wrong.” His words are strangely coherent compared to his frazzled thoughts. “Instead of hurting the bad people, we should help the good ones. Haven’t you noticed that whenever we take someone out, someone else takes their place?” 

Yeah, people replace people. Even important roles need to be filled when the previous holder dies. There is no reason to keep an important spot empty out of respect, no reason at all. Replacements are bound to happen. Spots don’t stay empty out of respect. Even dangerous ones. If someone dies on the job, you just replace them. 

When someone stops being useful, there is no need to respect them. 

You can do whatever you want to someone after they’ve served their purpose. You can hurt them, cut them, make them bleed. 

There’s a light, pulsating pain right across his neck. It’s nothing new, just another flare-up. Hadn’t he been saying something? The words still sat on his tongue. Replacements, yeah. 

—  
While Jason had never been the best talker, not when it came to stuff like this, he didn’t stutter, didn’t take such long breaks between points. Even if he stood like everything was normal, Kate noticed something was wrong. 

The words were all right. It was everything else that set off alarms in her hear. “Are you okay, Jay?” She knows he won’t say anything. Jason never says what he’s actually feeling. 

“I’m fine. Feeling very good. Good, healthy, yeah. Anyways, this isn’t some reckless decision, I’m not reckless.” What? Since when was Jason of all people safe? Looking over to Will, he was thinking the same thing. “I just want to help. Don’t you two want to help?” 

They both nod up at him reassuringly. “Of course Jay! But, if we want to help, we should stop by the house first.” She’s the first one to come up with a plan. Her only hope is that Will can play along. 

“Yeah, we probably should. Come on, Jason, we can talk once we’ve changed out of all this.” He pushes the man into motion gently. After the jump-start, they’re all flying quickly from building to building on their lines. 

—  
The second they are all out of their armour, Will leads Jason onto the couch to ‘talk’. As much as the boy likes to think that most of his talks don’t involve a hidden syringe full of sedative, he also doesn’t like lying to himself. 

Jason is passed out on the couch a few minutes later, complete with an obnoxiously bright, unicorn-themed bandage over the small prick, courtesy of Kate. Yep, just a normal talk. 

When she finally sits back down next to Jason’s head, neither one wants to address what had happened. “How are you feeling?” She just chews at her lips in response. 

“I’m fine.” They both flinch at the poor word choice. “Everything’s okay. I’m just worried. He was getting better, right? I didn’t just trick myself into thinking that?” 

“No you didn’t; he definitely was. Whatever he saw in that alleyway, whatever it reminded him of, just pushed him back a bit. I just don’t know what it was down there that couldn’t shock him so much.” He knew he didn’t know Jason as well as Kate did, he was still pretty new. But he did think that they knew each other well enough to talk about whatever was bad enough to finally break Jason. 

They were basically a family (not that he would ever tell Kate or Jason that out loud). We’re they a family? He wasn’t overthinking things again, right? Had he been away from anything remotely familial for so long he didn’t remember what it was like? His thoughts continued to spiral until Kate spoke up again. 

“It doesn’t really matter. I’m more curious about what his grand plans were. He said he wanted to help people, aren’t we doing that already?” Her hands move down to play with Jason’s hair, braiding and unbraiding it involuntarily. 

“Yeah, I thought so anyways. I mean, he was right about the bad people just popping up again and again but I don’t understand the rest.” Her hands continue to move, weaving patterns on their own accord even when she looks up at Will. 

Even if her eyes never exactly meet his, it’s close enough. “He just wants to help people. It’s all he’s ever done. I joined when the gang was still, like, super new. But even back then it was friendly and welcoming as long as you didn’t have a truly unacceptable past. Speaking of past,” her eyes finally meet his with a meek grin. “Did I ever tell you how the two of us met?” 

Will shakes his head. It wasn’t an avoided topic, it was just old. Three years ago was a long time to wait before finally telling a story. After a while, there’s just not really a point. You’re not the same people you were back then. 

Though, it is hard to image Kate as anything less than the whirlwind of dumb puns and sheer muscle she is now. 

“It would’ve been around 2019, about three years now I guess. It had been a... tough time. The fire had just happened, I still had burn scars on my arms.” He knows what she’s talking about. Even if they didn’t talk about their past family much, he still knew what had happened in the fire. “With them... yeah, and me living on the streets all of a sudden, I got kicked out of the-“ he knew she had the right word, just didn’t want to say it. Saying things, he had learned, made them a lot more real. 

It can’t be easy to acknowledge that most of your mid-childhood had been spent working illegally young. “Anyways, with nowhere to go and no job, I ended up on the streets.” Now that, he could relate too. 

“Aw yeah! Street kids!” They both say at the same time. It feels weird to high-five on it without Jason. The little joke had been going on longer than any of them could really remember. Someone mentioned living on the street and everyone else high-fived. A completely normal family tradition. 

“Yep, you got it. I was only out there a few months, not that it was any better. There was a rumour going around that a new gang was looking for people to help out with the... heavier work, and a joined right up. I gotta say, I didn’t expect to spend my teen years in a gang but that’s how it’s going. I joined up and there was only a few of us. Luckily, Jason took a liking to me and we ended up working together pretty closely. I’m not gonna say it was all sunshine and rainbows, but it hasn’t been that bad either. I think you know what the initial downhill is like.” Yeah, he does. Not even four years on the street could’ve prepared him for what he does now. Everyone he’s ever met in the gang agrees on that. The hardest part is always the first kill, they said. After that, it gets easier. 

He didn’t think he’d ever be able to prove that they were right. They were; it really does get easier. It’s never simple, it just gets better. The trick is to realise what you’re doing is necessary, that you really are helping. 

He could still remember how it felt to slice the long, thin lines into the man’s arms. He had deserved it, definitely, that didn’t stop him from screaming. Looking back, the job had been sloppy at best. Now, he wasn’t one of Kate’s men, he wasn’t an express. But, in just over a year, he had improved so much. 

—  
For the first time in a while, Jason wasn’t the one being hurt in his nightmares. He wasn’t inflicting it either. All he was doing was watching; watching as the two people he found the most important in the world bleed out from their necks, he did nothing but sit. 

For the first time ever, Jason wished he was the one being hurt in his nightmare.


	2. Chapter 2

The Red Angels, a Nonprofit Organisation pt 2

—  
Everything is way too bright and way too loud when Jason’s eyes squint up. Whatever is underneath him is also way too lumpy and way too uncomfortable. Ah, so it’s their couch then. He could recognise those horrible pillows anywhere. 

Wait. Why was he on the couch? 

There’s a long groan that he imagines must be from him when he has to force his body to sit upright. It feels like a bad hangover, which would be weird considering he didn’t really drink. The only other thing that caused things like this were, oh. 

It’s a sedative hangover, that makes sense. Not a lot, but still. All that really mattered was that the sun was way too bright and whatever the people above them were doing needed to stop. 

“Kate,” he screamed. “Will!” If it was midday, they would still be around. They should be nearby. Hopefully, at least. 

“I’m coming! I’m coming!” There they were! His kids! No, not his kids. That was the sedative thinking. William and Kaitlyn are just his coworkers. Coworkers that he lives with and teaches and that are multiple years younger than him. That type of coworker. 

—  
Kate could hear the yelling all the way from her room down the hall. Normally, she’d be angry at his refusal to just find her. Being half the reason that Jason was passed out in the first place kinda diluted that feeling. If the other half of the reason could show up soon, that’d be great! 

“I’m coming! I’m coming!” She’s already halfway there. “Alright,” she stops in the doorway to the living room. “I’m here. What’s up?” That was clearly not the right thing to ask. There’s a subtly change as his eyes squint up at her and the glowing green swirls around more angrily within. 

“Well, considering I can remember most of last night and I know we didn’t get into any big fight, quite a bit. You don’t go on a normal patrol and then wake up the next day with a sedative hangover, Kate.” Yeah, that is a really good point. One they probably should have considered while he was knocked out. 

Will probably had an explanation ready, making his absence even worse. Just because 10 minutes ago they had wanted pizza, does not mean that he wasn't needed a bit more in their apartment currently. “Okay then. Let’s start with what you do remember about last night. Go ahead.” 

—  
Okay, what did he remember from last night? That was an easy question to answer. “Last night we...” huh. “Yeah, we were, uh, on patrol. Then we were not. Then I was here.” Well, at least he tried. “I mean, it was a small patrol down near the narrows. I can remember you saying something about the park you went to as a child. On the way back, Will was talking about one of his shows. That’s all I got. Everything after is just a general feeling of anxiety and bad.” 

All he knows about what happened later in the night is that it led to him being tranq’d at some point. “Oh, that’s not so bad then, Jay. Really, you didn’t miss much. You just kinda, like, snapped. I mean, you kept talking about changing how the gang would be run and trying to make the whole thing peaceful. When you got really anxious and twitchy, Will just knocked you out.” 

Speaking of Will, “I got the coast-style pizza, Kate! Grab the plates, will you?” There was a second of pause after he saw them both in the living room. “Ah, he’s awake! Come on Jason, you can have some too.” Heh, nice try, kid. Deflection is a good form of manipulation. 

Unless, of course, you were talking to the same person that taught you how to lie, throw knives, turn on a computer, and throw a decent punch. “Deflection, really? I deserve a threat at the very least.” 

“I have no idea what you could possibly be talking about. Do you want one slice or two?” Alright then. He opened this can of worms, he can lie in it. 

“Two for me!” Kate chirped. 

“Alright then, Will. Let’s say, for argument's sake, I remember everything that happened last night. That includes the part about knocking me out, what would be the best response?” He hoped what Kate had told him was true. If it wasn’t, things would get embarrassing really fast. Judging by the red rushing to his nose and cheeks, she hadn’t been lying. “And two slices for me.” 

“Four slices coming right up then!” He faked a cheery attitude and bounced over to the cabinet when Kate didn’t get the plates herself. 

When they were all sitting down, he tried again. “So, you wanna just forget this happened and move on?” Everyone at the table nodded quickly. 

—  
That night, while they were sat around the table with a deck of cards, Jason breached the subject yet again. “I remember a bit of last night now. Gotta say it wasn’t all a bad idea.” Will huffed in a response when they both turned to Kate, the action mainly working to brush a strand of black hair into his face. 

“I mean, I guess not. I wanna help but aren’t we doing that already?” She fiddled around with something in her lap before there was a soft thwack. 

—  
Will couldn’t help but flinch when a light blue band smacked his nose. The hair-tie landed in his lap for a second before he realised what it was. “Thanks,” he grumbled before tying his hair back similarly to how he would in costume, a long black ponytail trailing down from the top of his head to just under his shoulders. 

By the time his focus shifted back to Kate and Jason, the room seemed just a few degrees cooler. It was Kate’s turn to speak, it seemed. “I get that, Jay! All I’m saying is that going soft won’t do us much good. What about all the people that rely on us to get rid of abusers or paedophiles? What will they do when there’s no one left to protect them? A food bank is useless if your spouse hurts you before you even think about leaving the house.” The other man signed deeply before looking back up at her. 

“I’m not saying we go soft, Kaitlyn.” Oooh, Jason was pulling out some full name shit now! Things were about to get good. “Just that we can do more good for the city if we expand our influence. Plus, it’ll be less dangerous for everyone involved, too. You understand that, don’t you?” Was he really pulling the safety card with their special brand of night time activities? Hah, as if they actually cared. 

“Safety, Jason, really? I get how expanding or whatever would help but you’re concerned about our safety now too? We don’t need your protection.” But we do like it, he wanted to add. No one ever said it wasn’t nice to have the safety that came with living in the same house as a mob boss. The pay wasn’t bad either. 

“I’m not shielding you or anything! All I want is for you two to be safe and happy, okay‽ It’s not like I’m sidelining you, just trying to keep you out of the hellscape that Gotham can be sometimes.” Kate followed up with record speed, jumping to her heels when the adrenaline hit. 

“Why do you care so much about if we’re safe or not?” 

“Because I care about you both, damnit! You’re basically my kids at this point and if so, it’s my job to keep you both in one piece!” Aww, how sweet. Jason saw them both as his kids. Wait.

Jason saw them both as his kids. Oh dear. 

Actually, it was not an ‘oh dear’ situation anymore. ‘Oh dear’ was accidentally leaving your key in the office and having to wait for someone else to arrive. Fuck. 

—  
Oh, that didn’t make things better (or worse), it just completely changed the whole situation. Would that make her and Jason’s fight a domestic matter? Was that even the most important question? If he saw them as his kids and Tim as his brother, was Tim their uncle? She was pretty sure she was older than him by a year at least. That was also definitely not the most important question. 

Just because she saw Jason as basically a second father didn’t mean it was something they were ever gonna acknowledge. It was the type of thing you never said out loud and pretended to never have even considered, like how she knew Will’s favourite hero was Flash but couldn’t bully him for it because it would mean admitting she paid enough attention to notice in the first place. Or, that one time both of them let her do their makeup but they never talked about it and they all pretended to not have any pictures saved. In other words, it was a sensitive topic. 

—  
Jason didn’t even notice he had said anything until Will’s eyes widened dramatically and Kate didn’t respond. What had he even said again? 

Ah, yes, now he remembered. Shit. 

It wasn’t like it was a lie, just a bit too personal for them. Way to touchy-feely for him especially. 

Their little family (not literally) wasn’t all soft and emotional, or normal but that didn’t matter. They were orphans, street kids, hugs and kisses weren’t on their list of recent experiences. 

It had been years for Kate, time that had changed her into the type of person that survived the trauma she had went through with a fake, childish front for accessory’s sake. Watching your family die, being the sole survivor, wasn’t something a young girl could go through easily, for anyone to go through easily. To live with it, you had to change yourself. 

Will, he had had it even worse. At least Kate had grown up with a caring family beforehand. For Will, the softness that a family brought out was a foreign thing. He flinched at the hugs Kate gave and squirmed when two people in a show got a bit too close. 

It made sense, he realised, that the two people to wander into his life turned out to be so similar. After all, who better for him to mentor than someone with a past like his who he can truly relate too? But it making sense didn’t mean anything! Not really, at least. 

“There, I’ve made my point. I think it wouldn’t hurt it do a little bit of resource distribution.” He said abruptly before turning to walk down the hall to his room. 

—  
“Does that make us siblings then?” Will poked at her arm teasingly. “Sister, could you please tell father to get the hell back out here? Please, o fraternal sibling of mine?” Aaaaaah, that was too many words for her to process at the moment. Plus, what she did hear, she didn’t like. 

“Oh, shut up. That is not what we should be worrying about right now.” She flicked his head in retaliation. In response to the overly-childish look he gave her, she reiterated. “That is not the problem right now,” a sigh, “little brother.” 

Will smirked at her for a second before rolling onto his feet in a single motion. “Alright then, that answers that question! Now, as for the elephant in the room, we should probably go talk to him. But, before we do that,” there was a finger pointing right between her eyes that she stared at until everything else got blurry. “The two of us should probably agree on what we’re gonna say to him.” 

Alright, that made sense. What was her opinion? Yeah, she definitely had one of those. For sure! Yep, totally. An option, her opinion, what she thought about the given claim. 

Her mind made the same sound a broken printer might when you force-feed it paper. Like, a clicking and slightly scream-y sound of agony that is also completely fake and very much broken. “That sounds good, why don’t you share first?” 

“You don’t have an option yet, do you?”

“Not a single thought, not one.” Her mind stuttered out the noise that accompanied an error message on a computer. Just, a single loud DUMMN.

“Okay. Well, I think that we should feel honoured. I mean, are you really gonna tell me you’ve never considered it before?” He looked at her with his chin resting on his hands expectingly. 

Had she? Yes, absolutely. In fact, it had happened on more than one occasion. “Fine, I have. But I’m also 18 and he’s only like, 20–something!” 

“He’s 22, Kate.” Her ‘brother’ added purposefully unhelpfully. “Did you ever want it to actually happen then?” 

“The details are unimportant.” She brushed away his little addition with ease. “Anyways, I’m 18! I don’t need someone looking over my shoulder, especially not a parent. I had parents, I loved them, now their gone. I’m not gonna go through all that again.” Her thoughts were spiralling, she pushed the problem aside with a witty comment. “It’s you who should be worried, he could still legally adopt you for the next few months.” 

“Ha-fucking-ha. Not only can you adopt an adult, that’s also not what I asked you.” Oh yeah. Had she ever thought about it actually happening? Of course, she had. Could she say that aloud? No, not without a fatal wound present and/or the alcohol she knows Jason keeps in high the cabinet. 

“What does it matter if I’ve thought about it? That doesn’t mean anything.” 

“You’re dodging the question now. Like, you’re not even trying to hide it.” 

“Alright, fine then.” She can totally just admit it. It’s not like it’s that bad. She can just say it. “I...” she can’t say it. 

“You have, haven’t you?”

“Yes, okay! I have! I, Kaitlyn Ashia Malone, have thought, one more than one occasion, about having an actual parental relationship after my parents died!” She has to take a deep breath to steady herself and hold the tears back. “Is that really that bad? Is it, Will?”

—  
Oh, that’s why she was so hesitant. That, that actually made a lot of sense. Of course, she would be slow to accept it, family wasn’t a thing Kate did. 

Kate was rainbows and sunshine plastered over a thick layer of family trauma. She was depressive thoughts written with a pink glitter pen in a cute font. 

He hadn’t even stopped to realise that they might be thinking about different things when it came to having another chance at family. Your view depends on how you lost it before. 

Did you watch it burn to pieces in front of you until you were the only one left? Or, did they kick you to the curb as soon as they could? Really, it all boiled down to one thing; did you ever have another family? He didn’t want to use the word cheating, not really. But, it did work. 

Hopefully, the grave he was digging wasn’t quite deep enough yet. “Kate,” he started. “I’m sorry. For pushing, that is. I wasn’t kidding, though.” She looked up at him, completely forgetting what they had been talking about. “We need to talk to Jason. Okay?” 

“Yeah, yeah. That sounds good.” 

“But we should agree on what we’re gonna say.”

“Alright then, let the debate start. Or whatever, I don’t know what you want to do here.” They both sat down next to the small table, facing each other. 

—  
All Jason heard was the soft click of his lock being picked before the was pressure all along his back. Two things of pressure, about the size of large dogs. If dogs were shaped like people. There were two people on his back. “Listen, I’m sorry, ok? I shouldn’t have said all that.”

“Atatatata,” Kate clicked her tongue at him. “We talked about it and we’re happy you did. That means there’s no take-backsies, understood, Jay?”

“Yep, you’re stuck with us now, Jason. Until we manage to beat you in combat and finally free ourselves. By that I mean, when Kate finally beats you.” He chuckled lightly at his own self-awareness. Jason rolled over to push himself up onto his arms and look at them. “Oh, and we think you’re right. About the whole helping people thing, just that.”

“Alright, I won’t take it back, pinkie promise.” He offered Kate his hand for her favourite type of vow. “This doesn’t mean that I think you’ll ever beat me. Kate could get close but I could knock you on your ass in a matter of seconds, kid. Don’t forget that little fact.” 

There was a mutual look between them before they moved to salute him in unison. “Sir, yes, sir!” 

Then, like most cute moments, Kate had to ruin it. “I tried to get him to agree to call you daddy but all I got was a bruised arm.” 

“She deserved it, alright?” Yeah, he agreed with the kid on that one. 

“So, you guys wanna head to the main office? I think we have some work to do.” Two sets of eyes, dark green and almost-grey, looked back at him excitedly. 

“Sir, yes, sir!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who found out that their notifs are broken again~


	3. Chapter 3

—  
“Tim, go ahead and start getting ready to head back.” Bruce’s voice rang out loud through the comm. “Take the batmobile back as soon as you’re done, I’ll join you in a bit.” There’s something I can’t let you see, he didn’t say, didn’t need to say. Tim understood by now. 

“I’d it about Jason?” He asks. There’s silence as Bruce debates how to answer. Like always, he lies about it. 

“No, just something I need to do alone.” Alright, whatever. It doesn’t matter to Tim, more snacks for him then. “Just set up the autopilot and take a nap for the drive.” Ah, code for ‘rest and relax, I love you’. God forbid he say something directly. 

It is so totally about Jason. Probably, about the gang as well. After all, it didn’t take a genius (like him) to see what was happening in the city. Within the last month, gang-related crime had plummeted and an anonymous donor had become some sort of legend. 

—  
It takes Bruce about five minutes to get to the apartment from where he had been earlier in the night. From there, it’s another minute it get in without a sound. 

In the last few months, the place had changed quite a bit. Not enough to be strange, just noticeable. They had done a good job of cleaning the place up. 

While he’s walking through the small hallway, there’s a noise barely loud enough to hear. Just one district hmph of air, a single breath. It came from one of the rooms further back, he can’t help but inch closer slowly. 

The handle twists silently, opening into a larger room with only a few decorations. Taking up most of the space is a large bed. Jason is sprawled out across it. 

Well, that’s one way to make sure that he gets the note; he leaves it on the bedside table before making his way back out. 

Honestly, he’s surprised that he came back at all. His last visit was gonna be his last. Same with meeting Jason again. Hopefully, without the other two, he didn’t trust them. 

—  
Jason has to pry his eyes open when his alarm starts going off. His hand flicks around the table until he can stop the blaring noise at its source. In the process, he can’t help but notice a small envelope that he couldn’t remember being there when he went to bed. 

If it’s another one of Will’s weird lizard drawings, he’ll scream, he thinks as he peels it open cautiously. 

Inside, there’s only a small piece of paper and, unless he got really good at doing miniature works, it’s not from Will. He pulls it out carefully and unfolds it until he can read it. 

‘Dear Jason’, it reads, ‘I appreciate the work you have been doing. I am glad that you have proven yourself capable of change.’ 

There’s a strong temptation to rip the thing to shreds before he’s even done reading. It was exactly like Bruce to assume that every good thing in the world was because of him. 

‘I would like to meet up with you to discuss things in a more civil matter.’ The idea makes Jason huff out a laugh without even trying. Meet up? Is he serious? There’s a scar across his throat from their last meeting. As if. He tears up the letter. 

“Jason! Get up already! If you don’t, Will is gonna make breakfast!” Kate screams at him from the kitchen. He doesn’t know why it became more of a living room than their actual living room. If he had to guess, he'd say it’s about distance to the pantry. 

“Alright, alright,” he screams just loud enough to be heard through the wall, “I’m coming!” 

—  
After getting a response, Kate’s focus shifts back to her original goal: make some tea. 

The process is almost brainless for her, memory working on its own without any input. She fills up the small electric kettle, searches around for a black tea bag, and then- 

There's a jolt of realisation when she goes to grab her cup. For a brief second, she had completely forgotten about having to throw away the broken pieces after the place was trashed. She really liked that cup too, damn. 

Eh, there’s more. She opts for an old gag one that they found a while back. It’s all white with a simple black font. ‘Don’t talk to me until I’ve eaten this mug’ she giggles at the thought before dangling the tea bag over the side and pouring in water. 

—  
Jason doesn’t expect much when he walks into the kitchen. Really, the only thing that surprises him is that Will just isn’t there. How he’s supposed to cook from somewhere else, Jason isn’t quite sure. “Kate,” she looks at him from over the rim of her mug. “Where is Will?” 

“Oh, he’s still sleeping. Why, did you need him or something?” There’s a playful twinge in her voice that tells him she knew exactly what she was doing. 

“If you wanted breakfast, you could’ve just asked.” He glares at her while walking over to grab a frying pan from the cabinet and eggs from the fridge as loudly as possible in retaliation. 

“Okie Dokie,” she starts. “I want breakfast. Please. I want breakfast, please.” He grumbles out a reply before graving the bread and beginning to cook. 

A few minutes later, Will wobbles in on uneven feet without his usual glasses. He blindly grabs for a cup, picking out a random one, before slapping it on the plate below the coffeemaker. 

“Morning, Will!” Kate slaps him on the back rough enough to shock him. Whatever he tries to say back, they can’t really tell. If he was just a little bit clearer, Jason is sure there’d be some money being added to the jar. 

He decides to ignore it, focusing more on scooping eggs onto the plates he set out and pouring himself a glass of milk. When the toaster finally rings, he finishes off the plates and sets them down on the table. 

—  
Just as he’s about to sit down, Will hears the familiar ding of the coffeemaker. He grabs the mug quickly before sitting back down to eat. There’s no cream or sugar, just pure caffeine. 

When he pulls the mug away from his lips, there’s a muted chuckle that Kate is trying to suppress; he raises an eyebrow in question. For another few seconds, she tries to keep a straight face. 

“Alright, alright,” she folds after a few more seconds of eye contact. “Just-“ more giggles, “just look at your mug.” Oh, god damn it. 

What he had thought was just another white mug, was so much more. In rainbow coloured font right across the front, the words ‘If God hates gays, why are we so cute?’ are sprawled out in an obnoxiously curly comic sans-like font. “Aaaaaaah, I’m too tired for this shit.” 

“Swear Jar!” Kate yells. He pulls a gum wrapper and some lint out of his pyjama pocket in response. “Good enough!” She picks it up and hops over to the jar with way too much energy given at such an early hour. 

“There there,” Jason pays him on the shoulder reassuringly. “Fathers can all get fucked. Am I right, kid?” It takes a second for him to even realise what Jason must have meant. For a moment, he had forgotten about Francisco Duran completely. Not hard to do, considering how much the man tried to do the reverse. Wait- 

“What’s up with you? I mean, I know you hate Bruce and everything but that was just random. Did I miss something, Kate?” She shakes her head in response; Jason just groans with his head in his hands. 

—  
Jason tried to breach the topic gently. “He broke in again last night.” Alright, maybe more gentle next time. They both rocket to their feet in a flurry of alarm and anger. “It okay, he didn’t do anything, just left a letter for me.” 

“Ooooooh,” they both gawk at him before Kate continues to form some actual words. “What’s it say?” Will nods in agreement with the question. 

“Not much, just his normal bullshit. Thinks the world revolves around him and that everything we’ve been doing must be to get his attention.” Kate looks like she wants to ask a question. “He wants to meet up, for some reason. I haven’t even done much to deserve it, just got rid of a few guys. ‘s not as if I just got rid of everyone, you know? Anyways, I tore up the letter, so it doesn’t matter.” 

—  
Well, Kate thinks, isn’t that kinda why they cleaned up? Wasn’t Jason inspired, in a way, by Bruce? “So, you’re not gonna go then?” She tests the waters. 

He scoffs. “God, no. I don’t work for him anymore, he doesn’t need to know my thought process or whatever the fuck it is that interested him.” 

It’s a well-kept secret that only she and Will know when he’s lying. Well, right now, it doesn’t take a genius (like Will) to figure see it. “I mean, it’s not as though we’re doing anything tonight. Will and I could go with you.” Yeah, they could go and sock Batman in his face as hard a possible. She makes a mental note to add ‘Bat-Beatdown’ to their daily schedule. 

“And why do you want to go so badly?” He asks her. Fuck. Uhhhhh...

“Because I want to shake his hand, Jay. Why the fuck do you think?” She fishes out a quarter from her purse on the table and tosses it onto the floor of the other room. “I want to stick his dick in an ant-pile, obviously.” She doesn’t take out another coin, they both look at her. “I was talking about Nightwing, get your heads out of the gutter.” 

—  
“I’ll go too!” Will adds, mainly just to see how it pans out. 

“No,” Jason looks ready to scream. “No one is going.” Kate gives him one of the most serious cases of puppy dog eyes Will had ever seen. “Nice try, Kate.” She goes up another notch into semi-depressed owlet. “Nope.” Then it’s kicked puppy. “Nien.” She shifts into anxious rabbit. “Non.” That one sad bear meme. “I’m gonna run out of languages here, Kate.” Finally, goes for a combo attack of the crying cat emote and what he assumes Cubones must look like a majority of the time. There’s a long moment of silence. “Fine. We can go, but it’s on my terms and we are not staying longer than a few minutes. This is not us hearing him out, just sheer curiosity.” So basically they are gonna hear him out. Jason sure is bad at saying what he means. 

—  
Jason gets up from the table for a minute, going into his room to grab the abandoned scraps of paper to put them back together. When he was done, he read it out loud. 

‘Dear Jason.   
I appreciate the work you ah e been doing. I am glad that you have proven yourself capable of change. I would like to meet up with you to discuss things in a more civil matter.’ There was even more he hadn’t read before. ‘If you are interested, I have booked a table at the small cafe on Welmer street for three. I doubt that I need to tell you not to wear your costume.’ 

Well, that sounds like a great way to get him unarmed and without armour. Sure would be a shame if they all wore an extra layer or two of Kevlar. Yep, damn shame. 

“Oh my god, I know exactly what I’m gonna wear!” Kate runs off in a hurry. As much as he doubts it will take her six hours to get ready, he wouldn’t be completely surprised. She and Will both have a tendency to overdress. Especially when it came to all the new clothes they had both been stockpiling since moving in. 

“I wonder if Tim will be there too. We still kinda owe him for your... life.” Will looks away from him before snapping up with an idea. “Oh, Kate! Do you have time to do my makeup as well?” 

“Hell Yeah!” It is gonna be a really long day. Why did he have to be such a pushover when it came to Kate?

—  
Walking through the doors, they make for quite the sight. As used to the stress as they are (you don’t often see a muscular girl walking around with a stick figure and her equally brick-like friend, after all) it’s even worse when they sit down next to Bruce Wayne of all people. There are a few audible camera clicks. 

Well, that’s what the makeup was for. Not Kate’s makeup, that was something else entirely. His was simpler, mainly to cover scars and any identifying marks. The thick paste wasn’t comfortable but it did the job well enough. Add in some spray-on black hair dye to cover the streak, a pair of darkened sunglasses to hide the faint glow of his eyes, ripped jeans, a loose red hoodie, and he almost looked normal. 

Kate and Will on the other hand...

Kate was wearing a short white skirt separating what was basically a purely white lace top from light blue fishnets. With matching red makeup to highlight her grey eyes, she definitely got them all a bit more attention. 

Next to her, Will had a very different style going on. His black T-Shirt was loosely hanging over blue skinny jeans and only had a few words. ‘Can you not’ was printed right across his chest in bright orange. Again, Kate had done the accompanying makeup. Orange makeup and green eyes looked good, Jason noted for no particular reason. 

—  
Bruce looked at the gang with a judging eye, silently scanning them for any hidden weapons. He didn’t expect them to be empty-handed but on a scale from unarmed to an entire armoury, they were carrying a solid army supplies transport vehicle of weapons. He bit back a sigh. 

“Bruce,” Jason announced stiffly. “We didn’t come to chat. Whatever it is you needed, say it quickly.” The two kids framed his sides like bodyguards. 

Well, whatever Jason wanted. “I like the work you’ve been doing. It is wonderful that you took my advice into-“ Jason spoke over him loudly. 

“I didn’t do it because of anything you said, you selfish asshole. I’m just looking to change some stuff up.” Bruce’s eyebrow twitched. “Now, stay out of our territory or we will escalate.” 

Bruce knew a losing battle when he saw one. He decided to concede. “Alright, alright,” he spoke, “I’ll keep to my side of the city on with one rule.”

“Spit it out then, old man.” The young girl on his left growled. 

“You have to keep this up. Fire the rest of your people, I don’t want to fight another one of your rooks again.” All three of them laughed in his face. 

—  
Was he kidding? Kate was sure it had to be a joke of some sort. Fire them? And quit their whole thing? Ha-fucking-ha. “Nope, we would rather-“ She stopped when Jason squeezed her arm just a bit too tight for comfort. 

“Fine, whatever it takes to keep you away. Don’t even think about following us.” Huh... 

Did he just, no he couldn’t have. Jason would never back down, especially not from Bruce. There was no way he would go soft just for a small bit of daddy dearest's praise. No way. 

—  
Jason had to be joking, right? He would never agree to that. Either Will knew less about Jason then he thought, or there was something else going on. God, he hoped it was something else. 

Didn’t Jason realise just how many people relied on him for a job? What would they do if Jason just left them all to rot away while he played daddy’s boy? 

—  
Just as Jason and his team turned to leave, Bruce spoke up one last time. “Here, take it.” 

On the table, there is a stack of money over two inches tall. That would be more than enough to pay off the rest of their repair expenses plus let them lower their own cuts. 

He states at it for a small second before swiping it off the table without thanks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~<3


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve had this done for a bit now but wanted to spread it out an extra day or two. Can’t be giving you guys too much serotonin now, can I?

—  
No matter how perfect and angelic the news portrayed the Red Angels as the actual leaders couldn’t be farther from as of late.

Not that the initial switch had been easy on anyone. It had taken multiple days for Will to even consider to be a good idea. The whole thing had been way too daunting for him. It was too much change. 

Will didn’t like change, it never seemed to be a good thing. Change meant adapting and if you messed up, it went badly, especially out on the streets. So turning the entire gang around so suddenly didn’t sit rig with him at first. 

Jason, it turned out, only had half a plan. It was a good plan (most of Jason’s plans were) but it was still too risky for Will at first. A few days into it, over the big stuff, and it had calmed down a bit. Now that the entire thing was in action, he was only a little worried. He was just a little bit angry at Jason by then. Not nearly as much as Kate seemed to be!

It’s probably because she lost the most people during the switch. Will’s record keepers and strategists hadn’t been very willing to sign up when Jason came around asking for volunteers. 

He just hoped she was seeing what they were doing now. She must watch the news, right? He can’t imagine how confused she would be if not. 

—  
Kate wasn’t even working out in the gym, just sitting on the unused equipment. Laugh tracks and loud sports announcements filled the room from the TVs. She had long since given up on ever being able to change the channel.

It was getting really boring in the locker rooms and gyms with only five other people to talk to. Kate wasn’t sure how much longer she could go until she finally snapped at Jay. 

Not that she didn’t love the five bishops (Will was still mad about there being more than 4 but she was done caring), she did. They were the best of the best, the ones she called on when the game was real. Truly, the only time she can remember them ever failing and been while stalking the Drake kid a few months back. 

It just that spending time with only them could be... intense. They weren’t even similar but that didn’t stop them from getting along a bit too well. Even having two in the same room was tiring. So, when Hazel walked into the gym with Alexandra, Kate didn’t waste much time finding an excuse to leave. She headed down the hall towards Jason’s office. 

—  
He had just finished writing another reform to pass out when Kate barged into his office with a loud whine. “I’m done!” She half-screamed once the door was closed, “I can’t take this much longer, Jay. For the last month, I’ve lost person after person and nothing has changed!” He looked at her confusedly. 

“Have you not been seeing the news, Kate?” He asked. 

“There isn’t a TV in the gym that isn’t playing sports or drama reruns.” She has more to say when she catches his lips quirking up at the idea. “It isn’t funny! I’m going deaf in there, Jay, deaf! Now, are you gonna tell me what I’m apparently missing or just sit there?” Even when she’s mad, it seems, she can’t help but be a little dramatic. 

“No no no no no no. It’s not fun if I tell you,” she glared at him. “Alright then, take a seat.” She plops down onto one of the chairs in front of his desk. “Look.” He turns his computer monitor to face her. 

—  
A new group of volunteers step forward in Gotham, the article is titled, who are these heroes? In the image, she can spot multiple familiar faces. “Those are my people! What did you do‽” Her arm is raised to attack. 

“Calm down, Kate. I didn’t do anything. Like the article says, they volunteered.” She looked at him sceptically. “Here, I still have the list.” He handed her a clipboard filled with names. Oh.

Yeah, those were all the people she had thought had been fired. “Wait, what did they volunteer for?” He smirks at her. 

“Glad you asked.” His hands are busy searching through the desk drawers. “I split them up based on request. Some are here,” he showed her a set of blueprints showing a new building. Unlike their offices, it was filled with cooking appliances and rows of tables with chairs. There was one wall labelled as ‘outside, front’ that caught her attention. The Knight’s Kitchen, the large sketch of the sign said. “I let them pick the name. Now, the others,” she still wasn’t over the last one when he pulled out another set of blueprints. Already, her eyes were beginning to tear up. 

Of the numbers that could be trusted, it was almost twice as big as the last building, not counting the second floor it also had. The inside was less crowded, with a bunch of smaller rooms separated by thin walls and small hallways. It almost looked like a hotel. “It’s still being built but it’s going to be a new shelter down in the narrows. Not to mention, the first one there with individual rooms, 40 of them, all with at least two beds.”

“Has it been named yet?” She asked. 

“Nah, I but I’ve heard a few whispers when I went down there. Your people have been a great help when it comes to moving things, you train them well.” She blushes at the praise before she can look away with a small mumble of thanks. 

“I-... I have to go now. Thank you, goodbye.” She can’t stand to just sit there. Maybe Jason hadn’t been completely crazy after all. Well, he was definitely a bit out of it when he first suggested it but the past few months since. 

—  
It takes a few days for Kate to finally have enough time to catch a bus down to the first address Jason had texted her. They were close enough to walk from one to the other, that couldn’t be a coincidence but it was good for her. Her inability to drive and the Narrow’s slow (at best) public transport weren’t a very nice combo. 

Once she can finally see the place, she can also see just how many people are helping out. There are people moving beds and tables in that don’t even have a Red Angel’s insignia. 

But when one of the ones that do sees her, they all separate. She’s swarmed by them all at once. Even if she’s not the oldest, not by a long shot, they all respect her enough to listen and obey, normally. Now, the don’t seem to listen when she struggles to breathe under the weight. “Knight!” The sound ripples through the crowd. There’s a strange look coming from the group of citizens at the name. 

It’s obvious they’ve heard the name, most people have. But to actually see her without a mask (the bus wouldn’t let her on, unfortunately) is something different. They had probably seen pictures or heard rumours of her younger appearance. 

Even at 18, she could pass as young as 15, and that’s a fact. She tried once. 

Well, if she doesn’t do it now, she doesn’t know if she ever will. Already, they’ve seen far more than most people have knowingly seen of her. It was hard to ignore how many people she could tell were looking into her almost silver eyes. “If we're gonna do this, then there are no more secrets.” The crowd looks at her curiously. “It’s unfair that I know everything about you, I wanted to make it a bit fairer now.” She can see the younger members looking around a bit in excitement. “Hello there, it’s nice to meet you all. My name is Kaitlyn Malone but you can call me Kate.” Her heart rate feels unhealthy fast. 

“Oh my god!” One of the younger girls in the crowd laughs. “I knew you looked familiar, Kate!” Yeah, she kinda expected Megan of all people to react. They only met after Kate moved in with Jason but they talked occasionally. More importantly, Megan was a cashier at her favourite shop in the city. They didn’t talk a whole lot but they knew each other. 

“Yeah, I’m happy to see you too, Meg. Do I qualify for the veteran discount now?” The crowd laughs. “Eh, It doesn’t matter. I just want to get to work. Where do you guys need an extra set of hands?” 

—  
“Alright, guys!” Kate addressed the five people in the room loudly, “listen up! From today on, we’re not taking any more hits. Finish up the back pile and then that’s it. I don’t know if you watch the news, or leave the gym, but we’re changing things up!” It took a second for it to register but all five of them obeyed like any other order. 

“Okie Dokie!” 

“On it!”

“Yes’m.”

“Alright!”

“Sounds good.” 

They all stood up for a second before crawling over each other to get through the door. 

—  
Jason falls into his bed with a mound thump, sending the small paper on the door flying into the air. He didn’t like to bring his work home. He didn’t really have any papers in his room. 

His heart dropped when he saw that it wasn’t a single piece of paper; it was a little white envelope. Whatever Bruce wanted, he was getting real tired of hearing about it. 

Jason had listened, he’d turned around as much as he was willing to. There was nothing Bruce could say that was important enough to make him change anything else. 

He was happy where he was, with his little family and little apartment, and big gang. That was all he needed. Bruce had nothing to offer him. The only thing he would ever accept from Bruce was an apology. He opened the envelope and pulled out the paper within. 

‘Dear Jason

I would like to further apologise to you. If you are interested in further communication, please come by the manor on Saturday.’ Oh, fuck him. It was like Bruce knew exactly what buttons to press to get to him. First on the harbour, then at the office, then the cafe, even in his own damn house. 

He was about to crumple it up into a hall when he saw the other side of the paper. It was written in two very different styles of handwriting. He read the top half first 

‘Jason

You should really come over Saturday, Alfred is cooking! The gang has been really cool recently! I know you probably hate me but I really would like to meet up again. -T’ 

Jason rolled his eyes. He really should hate the kid, shouldn’t he? It’s not like he’s growing soft or anything. Maybe he could kidnap the boy. Tim deserved so much better than what he knew Bruce could give. 

His thoughts were only stalling a little bit. He always had been good at remembering handwriting, too good. He knew who the next note was from without even needing to read the first line. 

‘Little Wing

Come over on Saturday, you can even bring the two other kids. I’ll be there, I want to see if Bruce was lying about you or not~’

Even Dick’s handwriting was perfect. The note itself was nice too. It was obviously a challenge, trying to get Jason to show up with the only thing Dick knew for sure would motivate him: spite. 

Damn, he was right to. He kinda did want to prove to the golden boy. Kate and Will would just have to be the final judge on how they would spend their weekend. Just like they did on every other weekend since he had met them. 

Jason really needed to stop being such a pushover when they were involved. He could swear that they could read his mind to know exactly how to get him to crack. Every conversation was like the worlds kindest interrogation with them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaahhhh, I love talking about my girl so muchhhhhh~~~~ Only one chapter left before the conclusion now!


	5. Chapter 5

—  
When Tim woke up in the morning on Saturday, he really didn’t know what to expect. He didn’t even know what he wanted, really. Did he want Jason to come? He wasn’t sure. 

When he rolled over to grab his phone, it was still surprising to see the gang plastered all over the news in such a positive light. There was definitely something going on, that much was for certain. It had just become impossible to place the blame on them now. 

Kind of like the government, then. Very suspicious, definitely some sort of illegality, but it was impossible to actually prove anything was happening behind the scenes. 

—  
When Jason woke up on Saturday, he already knew that it would be a bad day for him. Honestly, he wasn’t sure why he let the two kids talk him into going to dinner. He didn’t even know why they wanted to go. 

Well, he did, in a way. It definitely had something to do with the idea of getting to go into Wayne Manor, the Wayne Manor. They had been discussing potential outfits and hair/makeup styles since he brought up the idea over dinner a day after he got the note. 

Thinking about it now, he knew that he had made the wrong choice when it came to sucking up to Kate. His neck hadn’t even finished scarring yet and he was still going to meet Bruce again. There is no way that the old man actually feels anything close to remorse. 

When he really thinks about it, him going back to the manor has nothing to do with Bruce. It’s the others that he wants to see again. Bruce could die and he is sure he wouldn’t shed a single tear. 

The others, though? There was still a part of him that wanted to know them. Wouldn’t it be nice, he thought, to reconnect with Dick? To be an actual older brother to Tim? Didn’t they deserve that much? In his mind, there was no reason they should pay for what Bruce had done. 

Plus, Alfred? God, he’d wanted to see the old butler since the first day he regained consciousness four years ago. So, he would go. He would go and try to enjoy the evening as much as he could. If he had to ignore Bruce entirely, do be it. 

Well, at least it would be a fair, three on three, thing. He, Kate, and Will on one side with Bruce, Dick, and Tim on the other. Alfred would be neutral, he was sure about that. Actually, Alfred was the only one he was sure about. He could easily see Kate and Will swaying to the side of the bats with a gentle nudge.

Something about the idea of Kate and Dick scared him a bit much, same with Tim and Will. He just hoped that whatever they were doing in the shared bathroom wasn’t too much. 

When they came out, he could only think one thing: he never had taught them what exactly qualified as a formal outfit, what was acceptable to wear to a manor. Where on Earth were they getting these things? He wasn’t buying them!

—  
While Will waited for Kate to start his makeup, he worked on everything else, besides his clothes. He tied back his long, black hair into a messy bun that still tickled the name of his neck. One at a time, he took out the piercings that he had worn to sleep the night before, the simple silver rook and tragic on his right and his three facial piercings. 

Then, he started to replace them with fancier versions. His bridge and septum were gold with visible spikes, same with his left eyebrow. He picked out a dark red industrial bar and then got to work selecting lobe piercings. 

On his left, from top to bottom, he put in a silver hoop, a red spiked stud, another silver hoop, and a sanitised safety pin. For the right, he stacked silver hoops through the upper slit and picked out six post earrings: four silver studs, a small ruby, and a larger rainbow pride one he had gotten as a gift from a friend. By the time he was finished, Kate was ready to start on his makeup. He sat back in the chair and closed his eyes. 

“Atata,” Kate clicked at Will when he tried to move too much. “No moving yet!” She continued to brush some sort of powder onto his face in short, staccato strokes. 

Off to the side, he could just barely see what had picked up. As much as he hated to describe it as a coord, it’s wouldn’t be completely wrong. It was a bit too complex to be considered an outfit. 

“Alright, you’re good to go.” Kate whisked him out of the chair to sit down herself. He looked in the adjacent mirror. His face was contoured sharper with more prominent freckles across all of his features. Plus, his eyes were highlighted with shimmering gold eyeshadow and slight mascara. 

He grabbed his clothes and went into the toilet room to change. First, he slipped on the white, boat-neck shirt, then the black ripped overalls. He hadn’t brought socks with him, so the top layer came next. He pulled out an oversized orange sweatshirt that hung down his shoulder and ran down to the middle of his thighs. 

—  
Once Will was out of the chair, Kate sat down. She held back the curls of hair around her face with a simple velvet headband and started on her eyeshadow, skipping everything else like normal. 

She painted the light pinks and purples around her eyes with experienced speed. Doing the same to her lips, barely lightening their already existing colour, and she was done. Just in time too, Will stepped out with his pyjamas in hand. 

To start, she pulled on a strapless, sweetheart-neck white top and a pink, sheer top with small polka dot-like spots littering all sides evenly. The fabric reached just above her elbows, ending with a bishop sleeve. 

Next, she slipped her feet into the same light pink fishnets she had worn during their last big outing and tucked both of her tops into a pair of Jean shorts loosely. 

As for accessories, she threaded a thin black ribbon through the loops in her skirt, locking it into place around her hips with a small bow near her navel; fishing out two matching socks from the array handful she had brought, she found a white, over the knee pair to wear under her pastel Converse sneakers. 

Back in the main section of the bathroom, Will was waiting for her to finally walk out together. When Jay can finally see them, he all but deflates. “You know what? Alright, let’s go.” 

He himself is dressed in a casual outfit. Blue jeans, a black graphic tee, it was all just so usual for him. Even the sunglasses were the same plain black pare as normal. 

They all walked out to the car together, Jason just a step behind them while he dragged some sort of luggage that Kate couldn’t recognise. Weapons, she guessed, just in case. Well, the weapons were in a case. She laughed at her own silent pun. 

—  
“Okay, let’s go over some ground rules.” Like always, Jason is driving. He had found that he liked arriving at his destination in one piece, something the other two couldn’t guarantee. “When we get there, scope out and check any room you go into. Only eat the food that Alfred gives you. Don’t get into any fights,” he looks at Kate. “When you leave, check all your clothes for bugs. And please don’t be too suspicious, I’m begging you.”

“Okie-Dokie!”

“Alright.”

They could not have made it any clearer that they weren’t really listening, for fucks sake. This was gonna be hell. 

—  
Kate has her face smooshed against the window by the time they finally pull up. As soon as the car is stopped, she’s bouncing out of the door and headed down the small pathway. Faintly, she can hear Jason ask her to stop. 

“Stop it!” His voice is getting closer. “I’m not ready; I gotta prepare myself for this!” Will chuckles. 

“Like, mentally or physically?”

“Both.”

—  
There’s nothing Jason can do to stop Kate from knocking while he’s so far behind her. He has to sprint just to catch up with her before the door is opened from the other side. Will doesn’t bother, he just keeps walking at his normal pace, nor a few metres behind them both. 

The door swings open gracefully only a few seconds after she knocks. “Ah, miss Malone, you look lovely this evening.” Alfred greets Kate first. “Master Jason! Oh, how wonderful it is to see you again, I’ve missed you, and look at how much you’ve grown.” He isn’t wrong, Jason had shot up like a sprout when he came back to life. It had taken a few months to finally stop hitting his head on things and swiping everything off of shelves. Will finally caught up with them. “Mister Duran, I’ve heard much about you from young master Tim. All of you, please make yourselves at home inside.”

“Thank you, Alfred. It’s good to see you too.” They did just what he had asked, walking through the door one at a time, cautiously. Will was much sneakier when it came to checking for bugs. Where his fingers only lightly touched under the tables they passed, Kate would drag her whole hand. Though, she was much better at checking the tighter surfaces and walls, with the three inches (plus heels!) she had on him. “Are the others already seated?” It was hard to stop himself from slipping into more final speech. Something about being in the manor and next to Alfred just flicked a switch in his mind. 

He could tell the man was glaring at his sunglasses, but he didn’t make any attempt to take them off. He wished it was just a weird fashion statement. 

Just as they got close enough to see the dining room doors, something wet and cold slapped against Jason’s hand. Instinctively, he pulled it away. For a second, until he realised what was happening and dropped to his knees. “Ace!” His hands ran over the fur of the dog gently. 

He hadn’t even considered that he would be seeing Ace again as well. The dog had been trained a bit better, not barking his head off the second so much as a fly touched the front door. “Oh, good dog!” He continued to coo at the large animal.” To his left, Kate sat down next to him, then Will on his right. All three of them fawned over the creature at once. 

They all continued to pet the large dog for a few minutes until Alfred cleared his throat a few times to get their attention. “Everyone is already inside, Master Jason.” Kate looked sad when Ace trotted off in the same direction he came from. 

“We should get a dog, Jay.” She said in a deep, longing voice. Will shook his head vehemently off to the side. To make her point, she snuggled up to Jason’s shoulder with the appropriately named ‘puppy dog eyes’. 

“I am not having this conversation with you right now.” He pushed her away jokingly and look back at Alfred. 

“I must say, the dining room had a very strange atmosphere last time I was in there; I’d be careful if I were you, boy.” Just hearing the butler’s voice softened something inside of him that he didn’t know still existed. 

“When am I not?” The older man gave an exasperated sigh, dropping the subject as he opened the large double doors to the dining room. 

—  
Will peaked his head around Jason’s larger frame to look inside. Six sets of eyes, all blue, looked back at him. Hesitatingly, he moved to the side a bit more, revealing himself in full. 

“William,” Bruce Wayne spoke. Holy shit, Bruce Wayne was talking to him. Him! Batman was also talking to him. Wicked! “Please, take a seat, you two as well.” He gestured to the seat across from Tim at the 10 person table. Next to him, across from Bruce, Jason; then Kate and Dick on the other end. He forced himself to swallow down the tense feeling in his chest before sitting down. 

“Jason, it’s nice to see you back in the hous-“ Bruce talks in an overly nice tone. It sends a shiver down Will’s spine. At least, until Jason interrupts him. 

“I am not here for you. To me, you’re dead. But everyone else? So don’t pretend to think that I’m doing any of this for you. I’m here to see Alfred again, to get to let Ace, to actually get to know Tim, to try and reconnect with Dick. Not. For. You.”

The whole situation was... awkward, to say the least. Luckily, both Kate and Dick seemed to share a very different plan for the evening. The younger of the two stood up with a dramatic flair. “Jay’s right, old man! About his own reasons, anyways. I just came to see inside a manor and Tim has wanted to-“ 

“THANK YOU KATE, THAT ENOUGH!” The boy in question half yelled. A rosy tint was already spreading over his darkly tanned features quickly. As Will sat back down, Dick stood up, proving once and for all that dinner in the manor was just a complex game of musical chairs. 

“If I can come all the way from Blüdhaven just for one dinner, I think that Bruce can step out for a minute.” Wait, was Dick really kicking his own dad out of the dinner he planned? Nice. “I’m sure there’s a perfectly unlucky young woman that you can go beat up for trying to support her family in the Narrows.” There was a mutual ‘ooooohhh’ from everyone in the room. 

Bruce stood up from his chair (again, waiting until the last person sat back down) before walking out of the room with a defeated grunt. As soon as he was gone, there was a near-mutual cheer. Only Tim seemed to be against the idea, not that he made any attempt to move. Jason fist-bumped Dick from across the table. “Fuck yea, dickie!”

—  
Will looks at Tim with an amused glare in his eye, vividly remembering their last meeting. Well, not their last, the one before that. The ‘last’ last meeting had just been awkward and tense. It seemed weird to flirt with the enemy when the guy that was basically your dad was unconscious in a hospital bed. 

The battlefield, though? That was a good place to really get under the Robin’s skin. He smirked at the other boy playfully. “You gonna say anything, Tim?” He accents the last word just to annoy him. 

—  
“You gonna say anything, Tim?” He wasn’t sure what he could say. It seemed weird to sit next to the same boy who held a knife to your throat and the girl that broke two of your ribs. 

If Kate was the strong, tough type of scary, then Will was the manipulative, sly one in their duo. Actually, that description for him pretty well. How he acted around Tim, in the very least. 

It’s not that the best counter to manipulation is blatant stupidity, it’s just that Tim couldn’t think of anything else to say at the moment. “H-... Hey?” He mumbled out. 

“Oh! He speaks! How nice,” he’s words are dripping like poison in Tim’s mind. People who talked like that, just to get under your skin, could never be trusted. It was always a cover for something else. “What else are you good at?”

—  
Will was running out of the creepy-cool lines he had seen online. Adding in the ones he had seen Jason use only bought him another few minutes at best. 

As someone who had to plan an entire conversation (whether it was torture, threats, or dinner), he was about to be walking into new territory. Man, putting in an entire facade every time you went outside was tiring. It was well worth it to be the ‘cool and sly mob boss at only 17’ type of character. 

He can’t imagine what it would be like to go into a conversation with a normal person as Will and not William Duran, mob boss. Ugh, would it be like listening to Kate? Just because he was that childish doesn’t mean he needs to act like it too. 

God forbid Tim thinks he is just a normal teenage boy! He can’t have that!

—  
On the other side of the table, Dick and Kate seemed to be bonding uncomfortably well. “I love your Knight costume, by the way, Kate. I couldn’t help but notice the colours.” His... brother(??) said to her. “I might just have to steal you from Jason, make you my own apprentice.” He smiled gently, always so goddamn charming. 

All Jason could do was laugh at the idea. Kate, betray him like that‽ No way! “You’re not nearly as fun, Dickinson!” All he got in response was a light-hearted glare. “Alright, fine!” He conceded after only a moment. “That shit you pulled with the old man was kinda cool...” It got him a triumphant grin. 

“Well, what can I say? He needed to know who’s in charge, and it's certainly not him.” Kate giggled before she could even respond. 

“A- doesn’t he own this place? And B- do you even live here?” Huh, yeah those were some pretty good points. 

“Yes and no, little one,” Dick slapped on a strange scholar-like accent for his explanation, “you see, while he does own the land and the house and the furniture and the animals and everything else, he had made one fatal mistake. He forgot one critical factor in his careful planning, well, two actually. One, I do not give a damn what he says, and two, Tim would likely take my side, tipping the battle in our favour.” God what a nerd. 

“Fucking neeeeerd!” He drew out the last syllable comically. “He didn’t even get to say anything important, just left the room. Serves him right though,” there was a hint of anger creeping into his voice. The corners of his vision shone green from the memories he tried to repress. Dick looked at him with a serious expression, a dramatic change from his earlier aura. 

“I really did try, Little Wing.” He sounded more solemn than Jason foul ever remembers hearing. Though, he still wasn’t sure what he was talking about. “I almost did it myself... It was just a few days after I got the news, typical that Bruce didn’t tell me until later. Then, that night, I just snapped, I found the joker in one of his lairs and I just... it all went red, Jay, everything. He was, for a few seconds at least, until Bruce brought him back.” Oh, holy shit. 

He didn’t know if that made it better or worse. His opinion of Dick skyrocketed, that was for sure. But Bruce... not only had he refused to kill the and man but to bring him back. Really? “I-I... thank you. And, I know what it feels like, everything turning red. Or, green.” He tipped his sunglasses down just enough to show his eyes and their subtle glow. Dick seemed to get the point. His brother didn’t even flinch back, not like most people did. “It’s out of my system mostly now but sometimes...” sometimes I don’t know what’s going on, sometimes everything feels like too much, sometimes I think I’ve gone insane, he doesn’t know what he planned to say. 

“Jason, I-“

“Don’t bother. Like I said, it’s mostly gone, and when it does come back, I can control it well enough.” Except when he can’t. Except when he blacks out and wakes up covered in blood he knows isn’t his. 

“I’m proud of you, Jay. I know it doesn’t mean much,” god, he wished that was truer “but, I am. What you three are doing it’s, it’s really helping Gotham. In more ways than me or Bruce ever could. I don’t think I could do the same, I’m wouldn’t be strong enough.” His small speech has even Tim and Will turned to look at him. There’s a mutual agreement between all five of them, one that he can hardly put into words. 

They don’t need Bruce, or Batman, or anything of the sort. The Red Hood, Knight, and Genesis were doing more good than harm, Batman had no reason to intervene. Nightwing was doing the same over in Blüdhaven, having moved on from the man that had been his mentor in his earlier years. Tim, Robin, he would get there eventually too. 

For now, they just settled with a mutual understanding. Jason would call it a Robin thing but even Will and Kate seemed to be affected by it. 

Maybe Bruce wasn’t bad, maybe they could reconnect eventually. But for now, he didn’t need to. Jason had all the support he needed at the moment. Maybe someday, he and Bruce could try again. 

Ugh, it was starting to be too many emotions for Jason. “Nice pep talk,” he brushed it off even if the look in his eyes was visible. “I think I need to stretch before I fall asleep.” 

Dick and Tim shared a small look before the elder voiced their shared idea. “Did you three bring your suits?” 

—  
Suddenly, Kate remembered the strange bad Jason had brought with them into the car. “Of course!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... this is almost the end. The next part on the series will be a two part conclusion and then that’s it, crazy. But, until then, I hope you enjoyed! ~<3

**Author's Note:**

> And part one is done! It’s always the hardest what with all the tagging and summaries so I’m just glad it’ll be steady from now on ~<3


End file.
